


certain as the sun rises in the east

by hovercraft



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Interspecies Awkwardness, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, no beta we die like men, ritsuka is a furry, you know who else is a furry? me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26297602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hovercraft/pseuds/hovercraft
Summary: He knows it’s admission by defeat, but he still won’t give her the satisfaction of getting a kiss from him. Ritsuka just looks at him with those ever-searching eyes.(In which Patxi is summonable.)
Relationships: Fujimaru Ritsuka/Patxi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 37





	certain as the sun rises in the east

**Author's Note:**

> No one else is going to write the furry/human fic, huh? It’s gotta be me? I gotta write Gudako trying to figure out how to kiss a muzzle and Patxi learning how to feel safe in the world? You’re gonna make me do this?
> 
> Sigh.
> 
> Fine. Patxi gets summoned before Chaldea goes to hell and the Lostbelts start, sort of like how you can summon Epic of Remnant servants before you actually get to their chapters, so Patxi has memories that Gudako doesn’t.

He’s surprised to be awake.

The last thing he remembers is Ritsuka’s face as he demands that she save the world worth saving—the one that isn’t his. He should be erased, forgotten to time and space, his body no more than the ether that was left behind for every Lostbelt. His history, his people, his world—gone. Arguably, the deepest fear any person can have. He’s surprised to see Ritsuka, and even more confused to see they don’t remember him.

Someone with clairvoyance—he doesn’t remember who—explains everything and tells him to keep quiet. That the world they know must unfold a certain way for a certain result. Ritsuka is confused, naturally. She doesn’t remember anyone in human history that would take on that appearance. Patxi just lowers his hat and says he’s from the future, nonspecifically. Da Vinci gives him a look and Romani Archaman tries to act surprised, but Patxi knows what will happen.

Any good Yaga would want to save their world, but Patxi wants to see the happy Chaldea for what it is. Therefore, he doesn’t spend time with Ritsuka at all at first. He asks where to get some food, even if he doesn’t feel hungry, and one of the kinder servants leads him to the cafeteria.

His first bite of food is strange. It’s better than anything he could have ever imagined, and even if he didn’t need to eat, he found himself ravenous for more. He cleaned three plates before realizing enough was enough, much to the flattery of Tamamo Cat.

He wanders the halls, filled with humans and non-humans with his gun strapped to his back, wondering just what he’s supposed to make of this world. It’s then that Ritsuka finally finds him again.

“Hey, Patxi…”

Curiosity is all over her face. Namely for the fact that Patxi recognized her when he was summoned, leading Ritsuka to believe they were future acquaintances. Well… she was right, as much as he didn’t want to admit it to her (and, taking that Clairvoyant’s advice, wouldn’t.) He just tells her that he’s here because he was promised something about Chaldea, and both Ritsuka and Mash look at each other and recognize there’s something very different about this servant. Something… strange, but interesting.

As much as Patxi tried to wave her off, to try and get her to pay attention to someone else, Ritsuka was determined to make him strong. Embers and materials, everything she could until he was bursting with energy he didn’t know he had. When he’s lead onto the training ground fields with two literal gods in front of and behind him, he wonders if there’s anything his diminutive-feeling rifle can do on the battlefield. He’s surprised to feel his gunshots resonate stronger, with a magic energy that could put down a beast in a single hit. He’s not so nearly out of place as he thinks he is.

Why was Ritsuka… giving him so much attention?

He just decides to finish up with their training and farming and return to the room he’d been assigned in order to relax and think about it.

\--

They’re in-between singularities at this point.

The nonsense that goes down in Chaldea is more than unusual, it’s downright perplexing to see a short woman archer with black hair and her army of deformed clones take them on year after year, almost like a ritual—Patxi is starting to find it funny by now. And then there’s the yearly ServaFes, which he barely participates in beyond taking in the cool breeze on the beach at night, which is otherwise way too hot. Ritsuka had been pushing through singularities like clockwork, and she takes breaks as often as she can, and no matter how much he tries to hide from her, she’s there right beside him.

“Listen, don’t you have other servants who need your attention at a time like this?” The Temple of Time isn’t too far in the past at this moment, and Ritsuka is still processing her grief. Still, she puts on her bravest front and sits next to him.

“I don’t know what it is about you…” Ritsuka begins, and Patxi is already dreading the conversation coming. “But I feel like… I feel like you’re important to me, in a big way.”

“We’re servant and master, of course, it’s important.” Those words were still strange to him. All he knows is that it means to have an instinct that is only to protect her, no matter what, even if he might die a second time. He doesn’t like thinking of himself in servitude, more like… paying a debt for seeing this world of peace and fun and having a reason to fight for it.

“No… you know me from somewhere,” She says, and Patxi audibly swallows. “Somewhere in the future. I just want to know—”

“You’re not getting anything from me,” He quips back. “There are reasons. Good reasons. You’ll know when it happens.”

“…” Ritsuka doesn’t say anything for a moment before reaching up to cup his muzzle. The gentle touch almost makes him reel back. No Yaga ever touched another Yaga like that.

“Patxi…”

And he’s drawn to her, he really is, this indescribable yearning and gratitude for seeing a world where there’s as much good as there is bad, instead of just suffering, surviving, where there’s music and dancing and reasons to dance. He’s selfish, other servants deserve her far more than he does, but he wants nothing more than to pick her up and learn more about how you’re supposed to touch a human if his clawed hands really weren’t made to hold hers.

He’s certain it’s from Ritsuka’s connection alone that he was able to be summoned here. His last sacrifice was for her. He reminded her to fight for the world Romani Archaman wanted to protect. The true, good world, the one humanity called home. Not someplace where suffering was the price of living. Perhaps that’s the only reason he was called by the Throne of Heroes… to remind Ritsuka of what she stood to lose.

“You’re… as mysterious as Avenger is, and I can tell you don’t want to be. I know you want to say everything, but you can’t, right?”

“… mhm.”

“Then I trust you. Whatever you can’t say, I hope you can tell me one day.”

He’ll tell her when it’s time for him to die in her arms. Then, when she’s reunited with him for whatever brief moment she can summon him for battle, she’ll see the look in his eyes and understand and be forever grateful that they had a reunion at all. And then… maybe, if the world was restored, then—he could…

“Tch,” He turns away from her forcefully. On the beaches here in Luluhawa, where the sky is a rich blue and the sand is perfectly warm, he can feel hot under the collar and he doesn’t like it, even if it has nothing to do with the heat at all. Like it or not, Ritsuka is becoming more to him than he wants to admit. He just can’t believe the feeling would ever be mutual, especially since he’s so secretive with her. He’s new to this servant thing. He has misplaced feelings when he should already know they won’t end well.

Ritsuka moves away for a moment and reappears on his other side, where he jerked his head towards. She’s wearing a smile and her (incredibly non-furred) skin is tan and he shouldn’t find her attractive, she’s not a Yaga, but being surrounded by these humans and human-like things have taught him which are pretty and which aren’t—and Ritsuka is very pretty.

“Don’t you have something better to be doing?”

Ritsuka bumps their noses together. He immediately reels back, staring at her.

“What was that for?!”

“I don’t know how to kiss you.”

…

That was blunt. He can’t blush, but the heat is getting to him yet again.

“Then don’t!”

“But I want to. Here, show me how I—”

“Ritsuka—”

She falls into his lap as she tries to hold him in place. He’s far stronger than her, so his grip is tender even as he tries to wrench away her hands.

“Why do you even want to--?!”

“Because you want to,” She says, again so bluntly that he’s going to burn up even when the moon is out. “I think.”

“You _think_?! Ask!”

“Do you want to kiss me?”

“I… humans and Yaga don’t kiss!”

“Since when? You said there were no humans where you lived.”

“You really think I find a furless whelp like you attractive?” He’s desperate for her to move on or say ‘just kidding’ because he can’t find it in him to lie.

“You’re deflecting.”

“…” She has his hand in the air, grabbing his wrist as she tries to stop him from squirming. “Ritsuka, even if I did, we’re servant and master. There’s no changing that.”

“So? You still have a heart and mind. Use them.”

He turns his head to the side so she can’t kiss him, snarling a bit in embarrassment. He knows it’s admission by defeat, but he still won’t give her the satisfaction of getting a kiss from him. Ritsuka just looks at him with those ever-searching eyes.

“Ritsuka! We need your help with the manu--…”

Ushiwakamaru stops with her hand comically stretched out as she stares at the sight in front of her. Patxi shoves Ritsuka off with a push that’s neither forceful nor gentle. Ritsuka gives him a look that says she’ll be continuing the conversation later, and he flattens his ears against his head and tries not to think about the implications of what she just did, and how that will affect her with what’s to come.

\--

Back in Chaldea, he’s grateful that he’s taller than her so that she can’t try and kiss him again. Still, she’s making eyes at him and he’s pulling down his cap in order not to look at her. By now, the rumors Ushiwakamaru had spread had reached everyone in Chaldea, and he can’t go anywhere without being stared at. Ritsuka had her fair share of admirers, and all of them were confused as to why she picked a Yaga, of all people, to return those affections to.

Eventually, Ritsuka takes him by the hand and tries to lead him back to her room to talk, but Patxi walks so briskly and forcefully that he’s practically dragging her behind him.

“You’re just causing trouble for yourself,” He tells her, and she says she doesn’t care, she still wants to talk.

“Look, you’re surrounded by people of your kind who want to give you that kind of love. There’s no sense in picking—”

“I don’t care!” Ritsuka shouts, a little bit above her indoor voice. “Not a single one of them was summoned just because they had a connection to me! And by the way you’re acting, I can tell…” Ritsuka slows down, her voice quietly miserable. “I can tell you weren’t summoned because things ended happily. So I want us to be happy while we can!”

That was so unbearably naïve, and yet…

“I’m already happy.”

Ritsuka lifts her head.

“I got to see the world you promised me was worth saving, and it is. I thought I would just have to imagine what it was like with my dying dreams. You don’t have to make this up to me by loving me, Ritsuka. I’m already… so much happier than I thought I could ever be.”

Ritsuka shakes her head. “Don’t… I don’t like you because I pity you. Don’t imply things like that. I like you because… I can tell I was destined to meet you. And I want you to like me, too.”

“Don’t worry about that either.”

Ritsuka throws her arms around him, causing him to stumble a bit back, but he pats her head even as he stands there, awkwardly. “If it makes you happy… you can… I—”

Instead of answering, Ritsuka takes her place behind him and takes a hold of his hand.

“… don’t let it go to your head.” He mumbles, utterly defeated.

With that, Ritsuka leads him off. He knows whatever this is won’t last, and what’s to come is going to be a test of Ritsuka’s conviction, but… he’s learning slowly how to be happy. What it’s like to be happy, and for some reason, conceding to Ritsuka just this little bit…

… it lights something up inside of him.


End file.
